BUFFALO, N.Y. – Leaders from across the City of Buffalo
and UB joined together Wednesday to congratulate the graduates of a
leadership training program offered to two-dozen members of the
city’s historic Fruit Belt neighborhood near the Buffalo
Niagara Medical Campus (BNMC).

Over the course of four months starting in the fall, these 24
business owners, residents, parishioners and Fruit Belt property
owners learned how to become more effective leaders in the
community through the Active Conscious Communities Training
(AC²T) program provided by UB, the BNMC, Roswell Park Cancer
Institute and Kaleida Health. With this training, graduates are
better prepared to engage more frequently with partners, acting in
the best interests of all Fruit Belt residents.

“Going through this training has been a wonderful
experience for me,” graduate Freida Joyce said during the
graduation ceremony in Roswell Park’s Gaylord Cary Conference
Room. Originally from Buffalo, Joyce left the area for a time
before returning in 2003 to take over Café at Masten &
Eaton, the business her father started in the 1960s. Joyce decided
to join the AC²T program after seeing an announcement for it
in UB Today, the university’s alumni magazine.

“I got to meet a lot of people from the community that
care about the neighborhood and the direction that Buffalo is going
in,” Joyce said after the ceremony. “It’s
wonderful that the university and the medical campus are bringing
the neighborhood together to let them know we’re not going to
be left out.”

From the AC²T leadership program emerged a Fruit Belt
community advocacy group called the Orchard Community Initiative
(OCI), which is committed to improving the quality of life in the
neighborhood. That community dedication coincides with the
objectives of UB 2020, President Satish K. Tripathi said during his
remarks during the graduation ceremony.

“Your leadership in the fields you represent –
business, industry, health care, education and beyond – will
provide the foundation for a strong and vibrant future for our city
and region,” Tripathi said, adding that the university looks
forward to continuing to partner with leaders in the Fruit Belt and
across the city.

Although they’ve graduated from the program,
participants’ work isn’t done; in many ways, it’s
just beginning. Patrick J. Whalen, BNMC chief operating officer,
presented the group with a check from the medical campus for $7,500
to use toward initiatives that benefit the Fruit Belt. The
group’s first effort involves hosting a signature event in
the neighborhood to help bring together what can sometimes be a
fragmented community. Additionally, some of the graduates also will
receive scholarships to attend a Leadership Buffalo program in
2014.

OCI members said they look forward to working together for the
betterment of the Fruit Belt. “I think we have finally got
the collective vision that we are going to rise and we are going to
be successful in our mission, and whatever program we decide to do
with the $7,500, it’s going to be a united front,” said
Zaid B. Islam, an AC²T graduate.

City of Buffalo leaders expressed optimism and excitement for
the group. “I’m very thankful that we have citizens
like you who are working to make a difference in the
community,” said Mayor Byron W. Brown. “When we all
work together, we can make this the kind of community that we all
want it to be.”

“There has to be somebody in our community who stands up
for what’s right,” said pastor and Buffalo Common
Council Member Darius Pridgen, adding that he is “thankful to
UB and to all who participated” in the AC²T program for
bringing together a new group of community leaders.

The Active Conscious Communities Training program builds upon
the work of the BNMC’s “Four Neighborhoods, One
Community” planning process, which began several years ago,
said Ekua Mends-Aidoo, BNMC project associate. The initial group
had approximately 40 people, of which 24 stuck with it to do
something special for their community, attending a minimum of four
group mentoring sessions on weekday evenings and Saturdays.

“We acknowledge that although we were doing good work
individually, what we could accomplish together would be
great,” said AC²T graduate Alexander Wright, a UB Law
graduate and executive director at Urban Christian Ministries.
“No one group or one interest can unilaterally make a
decision. We are forced, in OCI, to take a holistic approach to
problem-solving. This is a heavy job. And to do any job, one must
have the appropriate tools, which UB provided for us by way of the
training we received here.”

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